Pics: Accidents in India

This is a discussion on Pics: Accidents in India within Street Experiences, part of the Buckle Up category; On many of the seminars/trainings conducted by the company I work in, its always stressed on the need to think ...

On many of the seminars/trainings conducted by the company I work in, its always stressed on the need to think safe, rather than just act safe. Unfortunately In our country, safety is still forced upon and rarely voluntary. Of course there are exeptions, and examples like these should go a long way to prove the importance of safety. But people always tend to think 'Naah it wont happen to me'. Maybe a change in attitude is required.

That said, I think the car in picture handled the crash pretty well. I m impressed how the crumble zones have acted to keep the cabin pretty well insulated from the crash.
Good to hear, the people were all safe, thanks to airbags and seat belts.

IMO, what really saved your friend is the bar at the back of the tractor trolley. If the bar was not there the 1st place to take the hit would be someplace just below the A-Pillar, and further with nothing to crumple or take the impact, passengers might have gotten hurt.

So, IMO, what REALLY needs to be STRICTLY implemented is the bar at the back if the trailers and trucks.

Also, it looks like the firewall/pedals/steering column, has not come forward into the cabin, and hence, even without Airbags, with just seatbelts ON, this should be a safe hit. btw, with ABS, didn't he try to steer away?

No, this point itself is faulty. And a slight correction, roads are usually banked towards the inside of a curve, not outside.Hope it helps a few people to understand the concept a little better. Drive safe!!

I am not that expert on Road designing but from the common sense gathered all these years and lived in various cities I can very well say that the roads in Goa are in excellent condition but at the same time are improperly planned. There are so many roads, roundabouts and intersections planned so poorly that one feels like laughing and crying at the same time. I mean that it is open invitation for disaster. No wonder there are so many young deaths take place every day and people have the least regard for human life (atleast for road accidents).

I am not that expert on Road designing but from the common sense gathered all these years and lived in various cities I can very well say that the roads in Goa are in excellent condition but at the same time are improperly planned. There are so many roads, roundabouts and intersections planned so poorly that one feels like laughing and crying at the same time. I mean that it is open invitation for disaster. No wonder there are so many young deaths take place every day and people have the least regard for human life (atleast for road accidents).

I would agree with you for the most part, except for some intersections, especially in North Goa, like the one mentioned above. Also, another point that you have not mentioned but is very relevant to your post is the lack of traffic management by the RTO, in spite of a lot of efforts being taken in this regard. So many times I just feel frustrated looking at the state of traffic and and imagine how much better it would have been if there was a cop present at the point.

On the other hand, at a few junctions in Margao, the cop present creates a bigger mess sometimes. At those times I feel it would have been better if he wasn't present, the public themselves are more capable than him of making their way in the traffic!!!

So many times I just feel frustrated looking at the state of traffic and and imagine how much better it would have been if there was a cop present at the point.

On the other hand, at a few junctions in Margao, the cop present creates a bigger mess sometimes. At those times I feel it would have been better if he wasn't present, the public themselves are more capable than him of making their way in the traffic!!!

+100 to that.
It feels nice to learn when someone else also notices the same thing. I've noticed it so many times that the junctions where a cop (infact its some Home Guard) is managing the traffic are worse-off than where there are No cops. But saying that, I would prefer cop's presence as it gives a sense of security especially if any friction takes place as he can be a witness, if nothing else. And this situation is not only in Margao specific but at 80% of junctions atleast.
Also I feel very bad when we all (incl me) complain that RTO, police etc don't do their job but when will we realise that it is us who should bother first about safety of not only us but of others but it is a distant dream.

Good to see folks walked unhurt from the crash. Last few accident reports on Team BHP of some very exclusive cars (With airbags not getting deployed, and fatalities) haven't conveyed the impression that that the cars are absolutely safe.

Although its always sad to see an accident, but i am happy that everyone was fine and more importantly, the confidence on Maruti that it does build quality cars that are not only fuel efficient but safe for its occupants as well.

I have the Cruze with ABS and have mentioned this in umpteen posts in various forums. Do not get a car with ABS which does not have individual brake control. A car with EBD will behave horrendously when braking with either of the wheels in the mud or off the road where the grip offered is poor. EBD takes care of front rear wheel brake control as if they were twins and not individual wheels. I have experienced ABS on three occasions and frankly my Junkindica without ABS/EBD is far better at helping me judge stopping distances when the left side wheels are off the curb. When all wheels are on tarmac then ABS/EBD does make sense. Just like the saying" A chain is as strong as the weakest link"; so also braking in a ABS/EBD equipped car is as strong as the grip available on the weakest tire. Till manufacturers offer individual brake control do not advice anyone to go for ABS/EBD equipped cars unless they only travel on well laid tarmac with shoulders. Its far better to opt for airbags than opting for ABS/EBD. I doubt though if airbags are available sans ABS. Google about what happens to a car when either left or right wheels are off the tarmac and ABS/EBD comes into play and the resultant stopping distances.

The post says that the Cruze has ABS and not EBD. But the rest of the post is about de-merits of ABS with EBD. I have a feeling that you are referring to cars like Beat and Cruze that have ABS and no EBD?

It is a good idea to make Airbags and ABS etc compulsory. But i would rather see reasonable speed limits being enforced seriously across the country first. And prevent traffic like tractor trolley and bullock carts and cyclists etc from getting on to the highway.

Far more important is the enforcement of basic safety rules such as having working tail/brake lights and reflectors. The trolleys almost never have them, and even if they did, the overhanging goods would hide them from view. Much like the trucks which either don't have working tail/brake/signal lights and to top that the lights are always shielded from view by some designer grill.

I have seen countless instances of such vehicles on the highways in MH.

Completely agreed, Not only Truck drivers I think everyone including the pedestrians needs to be taught on road sense.

Its high time to make 'Road usage rules and regulations' as a part in school's syllabus.

Here Fathers are driving recklessly in front of their kids, They dont realize one thing, for any kid their Father is the first hero and they follow them in future. Its one of the Father's duty to teach their kid on how to behave on road.

When someone go for walk with their kid on a road, Its always good to make their kid walk on their left. But wait, before that one should know that they, the grown up. should walk on the right side of road. Simple road sense.
But howmany follows this?

If traffic is blocked, nobody have the patience to wait for the traffic to clear, everybody jumps to the other lane and blocks the approaching traffic and makes things a bit more worse. I think in chennai you can see plenty of examples for this.

Its not use to blame others, lets correct ourself and try to correct our near and dears. Somtime in future atleast our kids can drive their cars/bikes without worrying the Senseless road users.

Could not agree more with you. As parents, we need to set a good example to our children. Just like at home we try to set a good example, so too, while driving we should make sure we follow traffic rules, especially when our children are with us. And isn't it true that if we all followed traffic rules, ur drives would become safer and faster? Even with a good deal of high speed driving, average speeds n highways never exceeds 65 km/h, while if we all followed traffic rules, this could easily be 70+ with much less stress and much greater ease.

All civilians and motorists need road sense, obeying road rules and driving regulations. Take any metro or a city, pedestrians cross the road in leisure, chatting on phone or window shopping while crossing the road. Another practice I have observed in Mumbai is there is a series of tailgating during peak traffic, everyone hurrying up and some ill fated poor guy gets touched from behind and there goes his new car's rear console. After such an incident people generally don't mind wasting time to shift blames or threatening each other on the road giving more bottle necks to the as it is over populated vehicular roads where the roads are never widened in a full decade but vehicles keep coming on the road every month. Even if people are about to reach their destiny from the next turn ahead, they will overtake in narrow lanes showing how fast a bigger vehicle can brush through. Parents themselves never bother maintaining speed limits or overtaking restrictions even when their car is fully loaded with other family members, many times parents are unaware of their child's driving patterns, thus never take interest in educating children, the responsibility of a road user, caring for others' safety. There has to be 24*7 speed governance on the highways monitoring linear flow of traffic. Reckless driving is not categorized in a high speed situation, reckless can be in 2nd gear driving too, overtaking without seeing far further and sometimes no option to corner the vehicle to escape the collision. Lastly, its a fact that not all vehicles' braking efficiency is identical, their braking distance vary too, but people drive all vehicles to its maximum output and boom. People cannot refrain taking risk in driving a small distance of mere 25 kms. But its really unfortunate for those innocents who obey lane discipline, speeds and safety standards and still get knocked off by a maniac who couldn't care for others!

Thats wicked, a full 360 and still he gets up and walks away with it with almost no injuries it seems. Lucky Boy. Whose fault was it, it seems that both the swift and the biker were traveling when the traffic lights were red. Only the green light was for the traffic that we can see in the video.

Three of them killed in accident on ORR when they were returning from Goa

Three childhood friends, including a MBA student, returning to city from Goa were killed while two more sustained injuries when their Innova car ploughed into a lorry on the Outer Ring Road at Hayathnagar on Tuesday.

Death was instant for V. Chaitanya, 24, K. Praveen Kumar, 25, and M. Nagaraju, 26. The first was pursuing MBA programme in Avanthi College on city outskirts while the other two were employees of private companies.

While Kumar was driving the Innova, Chaitanya and Nagaraju were on the middle and rear seats respectively. They started from Goa the previous night and reached the ORR by 10.45 a.m. on Tuesday. The accident occurred near kilometre 104 on the ORR coming under Brahmanapalli village. The lorry and the car were moving in the first track. “The accident occurred apparently when the car driver tried to switch to second track and simultaneously the lorry too moved towards left hitting the car. We believe the lorry driver failed to notice the car,” Hayathnagar Inspector, G. Srinivas Kumar, said.

The car, the police believe, was over 100 kmph speed and flung into air. It rolled on the ORR for a few metres before coming to a halt. A. Madhusudhan Reddy, 24, and C. Santosh, 28, sustained grievous wounds but their condition was out of danger, the doctors treating them in a private hospital said. Mohd. Omar Mukthar Sharieff, 24, a techie, escaped with minor bruises. The six youngsters were childhood friends and hail from Chityal and Narkatpally areas of Nalgonda district. They went to Goa for a pleasure trip five days ago.

The post says that the Cruze has ABS and not EBD. But the rest of the post is about de-merits of ABS with EBD. I have a feeling that you are referring to cars like Beat and Cruze that have ABS and no EBD?

To put it in a concise manner and to the bitter truth.

1)Shun cars without 4 channel abs or individual wheel control. Its better to have a non abs car than cars with 2 or 3 channel ABS in the real world Indian conditions or should I say Kerala conditions. I have had the ABS kick in a few times when my left front/rear wheels were off the road and in the mud. Braking distance was horrendous since the ABS kicked and prevented even the wheels on the tarmac from braking efficiently. This is what we experience in Kerala where the shoulder will be about 3 inches below the tarred surface.http://4x4abc.com/4WD101/ABS_how.html

2)EBD is less important. It helps in distributing brake force based on the load the car has front to rear and is to prevent wheel lock up in a light loaded rear wheels as a pair that is if the engine is in the front. It though is used along with ABS.What are ABS EBD EPS in a car

1)Shun cars without 4 channel abs or individual wheel control. Its better to have a non abs car than cars with 2 or 3 channel ABS in the real world Indian conditions or should I say Kerala conditions. I have had the ABS kick in a few times when my left front/rear wheels were off the road and in the mud. Braking distance was horrendous since the ABS kicked and prevented even the wheels on the tarmac from braking efficiently. This is what we experience in Kerala where the shoulder will be about 3 inches below the tarred surface.http://4x4abc.com/4WD101/ABS_how.html

2)EBD is less important. It helps in distributing brake force based on the load the car has front to rear and is to prevent wheel lock up in a light loaded rear wheels as a pair that is if the engine is in the front. It though is used along with ABS.What are ABS EBD EPS in a car